34 The Mount, BELFAST, County Antrim, BT5 4ND

34 The Mount is a five-bay, two-storey over basement, Georgian-style end-of-terrace townhouse erected around 1860, located on the south-western portion of The Mount, off Castlereagh Street, east of Belfast city centre. It is currently unoccupied and in a state of decay. Together with its immediate neighbours at nos. 32 and 36 The Mount, it represents one of the oldest surviving examples of terraced housing in the townland of Ballymacarrett, and the three houses form a group of local significance. Nos. 16–26 The Mount, which were broadly similar in character, have since been delisted and demolished.

The house is of rectangular plan with a single-storey over basement return to the rear. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with clay ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are cast-iron with an ogee moulded profile, though some have been replaced in uPVC. The chimneystacks are smooth rendered; the pots have been removed. External walls are finished in ruled-and-lined cement render with long-and-short quoins and a moulded masonry corbel course.

The windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash without horns, set on masonry cills. Moulded surrounds are present at first-floor level only. Much of the glazing has been removed and the openings blocked up. The front door is boarded up but retains moulded panelled surrounds rising to scrolled console brackets that support an entablature canopy surmounted by a pediment.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is asymmetrically arranged, with the front door positioned slightly left of centre, flanked by two windows on either side, first-floor windows directly above, and basement windows below (the view of which is obscured). The left gable adjoins no. 32 The Mount. The rear elevation is also asymmetrically arranged and features various window sizes at ground and first-floor level. The right gable adjoins no. 36 The Mount.

The site is currently bounded by corrugated sheet metal that obscures the view of the buildings. The land immediately to the rear has been left vacant. The immediate surroundings consist largely of 19th and 20th century red brick housing of two and three storeys. Some remains of wrought-iron railings survive to the front of the house.

Historical records provide a detailed account of the building's occupation and ownership. An early valuation map confirms that nos. 32 and 34 were constructed by around 1860, at which time the adjoining no. 36 was still under construction. No. 34 was built at the same time as no. 32 and was let by William B. Ritchie, who owned many of the buildings on the square. The Annual Revisions initially valued the house at £23 and recorded the first occupant as a Ms. Mary Burt, who continued to live there until at least 1894. In 1880 the valuation was reduced slightly to £22, a reduction that also affected no. 32 in the same year, though the reason is not known.

By 1894 the house was first recorded as the property of Francis Ritchie and Sons, a felt company and manure works on the Mountpottinger Road operated by William B. Ritchie. Mary Burt had vacated by that date, and a Mr. James Miller was recorded as occupant; he remained until at least 1900 when the Annual Revisions record the property as falling vacant. However, census records indicate that Miller, a 62-year-old Anglican spirit merchant, was still living there with his family in 1901.

A revaluation of Belfast property carried out in 1900 described no. 34 as a two-storey private dwelling measuring 43½ by 26 feet and 24 feet in height, with a basement level measuring 43 by 26 feet — larger than that of no. 32. The house was fitted with gas installations, contained nine rooms excluding the kitchen, and also possessed a bathroom. A small return to the rear measured 14 by 15 feet.

In 1906, when Pottinger Ward was valued separately from the rest of central Belfast, the value of no. 34 was increased to £25. In that year the lessor of the house, along with no. 32, was recorded as a Mr. James McQuoid, who resided at no. 36 The Mount and served as agent for the Ritchie estate, then owned by Thomas Hay Ritchie. The house remained vacant until around 1911, when the census of that year recorded a Mr. Robert Gorman, a clothing trader, as having come into possession; he lived there briefly with his family until 1913, when a Mr. James B. Hunter took possession. Hunter vacated in 1916, after which a Mr. David Duncan, a fitter, occupied the house; Duncan's family continued to occupy the property until the 1970s. By 1980 the house had fallen vacant.

The valuation of no. 34 remained unchanged until the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland property in 1935, when it was increased to £26. By that time the house had passed from Francis Ritchie and Sons into the ownership of a Mr. William Philips, who also owned nos. 34 and 36. In 1956, under the second revaluation of Northern Ireland property, no. 34 was revalued at £29.

The Mount square was constructed around 1860 on the site of Mount Pottinger, a former gentleman's residence belonging to the Pottinger family. The Pottingers purchased the entire townland of Ballymacarrett in 1672 and built their first house on the site by 1705. A later house on the site is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, but by the second edition of 1858 the house had been taken down and the site laid out in the form of the current square. One of the most prominent members of the Pottinger family, Sir Thomas Pottinger — the first Governor of Hong Kong — is commemorated by an Ulster History Circle plaque close to no. 36 The Mount.

Nos. 32–36 The Mount are the oldest surviving examples of terraced housing in the townland of Ballymacarrett, which is now greatly characterised by the red brick terraces constructed from the mid to late 19th century. As Haines wrote, "virtually all the houses built after 1857 were still standing a century later [but by the] start of the twentieth century... the whole of inner East Belfast had submitted to the terrace, and only The Mount, the original focus of the district, even then starting to fade, reflected the more prosperous years of Ballymacarrett." In recent years all three remaining houses have fallen into dilapidation; no. 32 is now essentially a ruin, having lost its roof.